{"id":10139,"date":"2022-05-05T05:37:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T10:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-james\/"},"modified":"2022-04-29T13:45:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T18:45:26","slug":"devotional-on-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on James"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16295\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16295\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16295\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/100_3155.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16295\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Along California 101<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Praying in times of pain or confusion<\/p>\n<p>James 1: If you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help.<\/p>\n<p>James writes his letter to Christians in general, scattered throughout the region. His writings might be labeled \u201ccommon sense Christianity\u201d because he covers many topics and always in a reasonable, \u201ctell it like it is\u201d way. For instance, he doesn\u2019t deny that hard times have come to many of them but at the same time he tells them that such an unwelcome set of circumstances isn\u2019t all bad. In fact, they can rejoice when, in the midst of trials they catch themselves responding as genuine people of faith. As hard times continue they can be pleased as they realize that they\u2019re handing such times better than they would have earlier on. It isn\u2019t fun to go through hardship, but there\u2019s reason to rejoice when I realize I\u2019m responding as I think Jesus would and that I\u2019m maturing in my relationship with him. James knows this sounds like so much gibberish to many people; outsiders for sure, but also to some believers who&#8217;ve concluded that if they\u2019re faithful to the Lord and trust in him things will always go well for them. The Apostle has some advice for that crowd too: pray about it. If I\u2019m in a fix and can\u2019t imagine how God can work in such a disaster, I don\u2019t have to pretend I\u2019m handling things just fine. Instead, I can turn to the Lord and confess that I\u2019m having a hard time seeing him anywhere in all this mess. James is absolutely sure that the Father will hear and respond to such a prayer. I guess it would be better if my first response was the best one, but if that doesn\u2019t happen, the next choice is a good one too as in absolute honesty I run to the Father, telling him I just don\u2019t get it and I sure don\u2019t like it. After all, James assures me, \u201cGod loves to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: It\u2019s encouraging to catch oneself responding to an unwelcome situation as we believe Jesus would respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Praying in times of pain or confusion James 1: If you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. James writes his letter to Christians in general, scattered throughout the region. His writings might be labeled \u201ccommon sense Christianity\u201d because he covers many topics and always in a reasonable, \u201ctell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1503,1428],"tags":[1364,340,411,464,845,1105,1108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16297,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions\/16297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}